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Palestinians kick as Trump unveils new Middle East plan

US President Donald Trump unveiled his long-delayed Middle East plan on Tuesday amid repeated rejections by Palestinians.

“Today Israel has taken a giant step towards peace,” Trump said as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood by his side.

“My vision presents a win-win solution for both sides,” he said, adding that Israeli leaders have said they will endorse the proposal.

Before the proposal was announced, Palestinians called it dead on arrival, saying it was an attempt to “finish off” the Palestinian cause.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected make a statement.

Jerusalem ‘undivided capital’

Trump’s initiative, whose principal author is his son-in-law Jared Kushner, follows a long line of efforts to resolve one of the world’s most intractable issues. Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2014.

Palestinians have refused to engage the Trump administration and denounced its first stage – a $50bn economic revival plan announced last June.

The 50-page political outline recognises Israeli sovereignty over major illegal settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank, something to which the Palestinians will almost certainly object. Trump said Israel would be granted security control of the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank.

The plan calls for a four-year freeze in new Israeli settlement construction, during which time details of a comprehensive agreement would be negotiated, according to the Trump administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of Trump’s announcement. However, it was not immediately clear if the freeze could be extended if a final deal is not concluded in the four years.

The officials added that the plan calls for the creation of the State of Palestine. It was previously unclear whether the plan would abandon the two-state solution.

Trump said Jerusalem will remain Israel’s “undivided capital”. But he also said under the plan, “eastern Jerusalem” would serve as a capital of a State of Palestine. He did not elaborate on what he meant by eastern Jerusalem.

Trump had already recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the city.

Sami Abu Zhuri, a Hamas official, said Trump’s statement was “aggressive and will spark a lot of anger”.

“Trump’s statement about Jerusalem is nonsense and Jerusalem will always be the land of the Palestinians,” he told Reuters news agency. “The Palestinians will confront this deal and Jerusalem will remain a Palestinian land.”

Earlier on Tuesday, thousands of Palestinians rallied in the besieged Gaza Strip to protest the expected plan.

Netanyahu meanwhile said on Tuesday it was a “historic day” and thanked Trump for his proposal. He said if Palestinians agree to the plan, Israel will be willing to negotiate “right away”.

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, said the “the devil is not in the detail in this case”.

“The devil is in the headlines,” Bishara said. “What we have here is a very clever, devilish clever, repackaging of the chronic problems in Israel and Palestine and promoting them as solutions.”

Source: Aljazeera

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